Card game.



J. J. FORD.

CARD GAME. APPLICATION FAILED maze, ma.

1, 1 07,417, Patnted Aug. 18, 1914 awvwwixw J- J- FORD JOHN J. FORD, or oTTUMwA, IOWA.

CARD GAME.

Application filed March 29. 1913.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 18, 1914..

Serial No. 757,629.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN J. Form, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ottumwa, in the county of l/Vapello and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Card Games, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to new and use ul improvements in card games and more particularly to a card game for spelling words and the primary object of the invention is to provide a game which will be interesting and amusing to both young and old.

A further object of the invention resides in providing a card game, the cards of which have letters of the alphabet inscribed thereon and certain of the cards of which, in addition to the letters referred to, have also inscribed thereon other letters of the alphabet forming words.

IVith these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter referred to and more particularly pointed out in the specification and claims.

In the accompanying drawing Figure l is a plan view of one of the lead cards having the word inscribed thereon. Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive are similar views of other cards in the deck which, together with the card shown in Fig. 1, form a word. In describing my invention, I shall refer to the drawing in which similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views and in which 1 indicates a card of any preferred size having inscribed on the face thereof the name of a city of importance, the initial letter of the name being preferablylarger than the others. This card, for convenience, with regard to the playing rules may be termed a lead card and, in diagonally opposite corners of this card are pips consisting of the first letter of the word which is inscribed on the face thereof. In the present instance, the word inscribed on said card is the name Boston and the letter in each of the diagonal corners is the letter B, but it will be understood that-other names may be used and in playing the game, cards with other names thereon are provided, this being only a showing of the type of card used.

In Fig. 2, I have shown a card having inscribed on the face thereof, and considerably enlarged, the second letter of the Word contained on the lead" card 1, the same being in the present instance, the letter O and in the two diagonal corners are pips consisting of the letter O. In Figs. 3, 4, 5 and (3, I have shown cards, each of which has inscribed. on the face thereof, a letter of the word contained on the lead card, the diagonal corners thereof being also provided with these letters, as described in connection with the cards in Figs. 1 and 2 and the letters of the cards shown in Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive,- together with the capital letter of the lead card will spell the name of the city contained on the face of said lead card. The cards shown in Figs. 3 to 6 inclusive, have respectively inscribed thereon the letters S, T, O, and N.

The game consists of a deck of seventytwo cards, ten of which have inscribed on the face thereof respectively the names of ten leading cities of the United States, the

I first letter of the name being capitalized and the name being inscribed in a manner similar to that shown in the card indicated in Fig. 1. The remaining sixty-two cards have inscribed thereon letters of the alphabet containing both consonants and vowels, the same being printed as indicated in the cards shown in Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive and the inscriptions on these cards are such as when properly brought together, with the ten lead cards, will spell the names of the ten cities contained on said lead cards.

In playing the game, the cards are prop.- erly shuffled and dealt, one at a time, to the various players, of which there may be from three to nine, as desired. \Vhen five or seven persons are playing the game, two of the cards may be removed so that there will be an even number of cards dealt to each player. When the cards have been dealt, the player to the left of the dealer, has the first opportunity to play, by placing in the center of the table or board, a lead card. If the first player to the left of the dealer has no such card. in his hand, he passes up this opportunity to make the initial play to the player on his left. The first player to the left of the dealer having such a lead card in his hand plays the same and the player next on his left continues the play by placing on the board or table, next to the lead card the second letter of the name contained on the lead card. Of course, if he has no such card containing this letter,

he loses his opportunity to play. Each player plays one card and the player who places on the board the last card of the name contained on the lead card is given the opportunity to play from his hand, a second lea-d card. Of course, it he has no suchcard in his hand the opportunity is passed to the next player'and so on until such card is found in a players hand. The object of the game is, of course,- to play all the cards from ones hand and the first player who has been relieved of all his cards, by playing the same on the table, in the usual manner, is considered the winner of the game.

From the foregoing, the rules for and the manner of playing the game will be readily understood and it will be seen that I have provided a card game which is interesting and amusing for both young and old. It will also be seen that the rules for playing the game are simple so that the knowledge thereof may he quickly and readily acquired.

As stated above, when five or seven players desire to play this game, two of the cards of the deck are removed, in order that an even number of said cards may be distributed to each player. In removing such cards from the deck, the two are taken which would not cripple the deck to such an extent as would prevent the formation of the name of the city, in connection with which the same are adapted to be used. For instance. assuming that lVashington, D. C., is one of the ten cities, the names of which are to be formed in the playing of this game, the le ters D. C. would be removed from the deck which, obviously, would permit the formation of the name \Vashington in the playing of the game.

Having thus described this invention, what is claimed is 1. A deck of playing cards comprising a plurality of sets of cards, a head card for each set displaying a word, and the remaining cards of the set displaying each one of the letters of the head card word with the exception of the initial letter thereof.

2. A deck of playing cards comprising a plurality of sets of cards, a head card for each set displaying a Word and hearing the significance of the initial letter of the word, the remaining cards each bearing the significance of one of the remaining letters of the word and pips carried by the card to indicate the letter which it si nifies.

In testimony whereof I hereunto ailix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN J. FOR-D.

\Vitnesses VVILLIAM RUTHERFORD, H. LAMBnRs. 

